Outcry rang out in Israel over the weekend after Hamas released video appearing to show a visibly gaunt Israeli hostage alongside images of emaciated babies as international fury grows over the rising deaths of Palestinians from starvation under Israel's offensive and crippling aid restrictions.
The undated video, which NBC News was not able to independently verify, appears to show Evyatar David, who was one of around 250 people taken hostage during the Hamas-led Oct. 7, 2023, attacks.
Standing in an apparent tunnel while shirtless, David — who is 24, according to the Hostages and Missing Families Forum, which represents hostage families — appears markedly frail, his ribs and shoulder blades visible through his skin.
The footage was juxtaposed with images of small emaciated children, their bones poking out from beneath their skin, as the number of children dying from starvation in Gaza under Israel’s offensive and aid restrictions continues to rise.
Nearly 170 people in Gaza — more than 90 of them children — have died from malnutrition since the war began, according to the Palestinian health ministry in the enclave, with the death toll climbing swiftly in recent weeks.
Speaking at a rally in in Tel Aviv on Saturday, David's relatives expressed fear he could face the same fate, with his brother Ilay David calling on the Israeli and U.S. governments to "do everything in your power, by any means necessary" to secure his release, according to statements shared by the Hostages and Missing Families Forum.
The footage from Hamas came a day after the Palestinian Islamic Jihad militant group, which is also holding Israeli hostages, released its own video appearing to show a visibly withered Rom Braslavski, who was also taken captive on Oct. 7, 2023.
President Donald Trump's envoy to the Middle East, Steve Witkoff, met with hostage families on Saturday and emphasized the Trump administration's commitment to returning the 50 hostages who remain in Gaza, the Hostages and Missing Families Forum said in a statement. Of the 50 who remain captive, just over 20 were believed to be alive as of late June, according to the prime minister's office.
The forum quoted Witkoff as saying: “We know who is alive, and someone will be to blame if they don’t come out alive.” NBC News was not able to independently confirm the comment.
The meeting came a day after Witkoff made a short and extremely rare trip into Gaza alongside Mike Huckabee, the U.S. ambassador to Israel, in a visit condemned by some as a publicity stunt.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu also spoke "at length" with the families of the two men on Saturday night, expressing "deep shock" at the recordings released by Hamas, according to his office.
In a statement, Netanyahu accused Hamas of "deliberately starving" both hostages and Palestinian civilians in Gaza by "preventing them from receiving aid."
David's brother similarly accused Hamas of "starving him deliberately" during Saturday's rally.
Israeli authorities have repeatedly accused Hamas of diverting aid from Palestinian civilians throughout the war. But multiple aid groups have said they saw no signs of aid diversion, while an internal U.S. government analysis found no evidence of systematic theft of aid supplies by Hamas, according to a report presented to State Department officials and later seen by NBC News. The Israeli military dismissed the report as “biased.”
Israel's deadly military offensive and crippling aid restrictions in recent months have caused the spiraling hunger crisis in Gaza, aid groups, including the United Nations, have repeatedly said.
Israel launched a blockade in March that barred the entry of aid into the enclave in the midst of its ceasefire with Hamas. It lifting the blockade in May but has still allowed only a trickle of basic supplies into the territory.
Last Sunday, the Israeli military said it would pause military activity in some areas to allow more aid into Gaza as it faced mounting international outrage over the spiraling hunger crisis.
Humanitarian organizations have warned that while more aid has begun to trickle into the enclave, it is still not nearly enough to stave off famine.
The world's leading body on hunger, the Integrated Food Security Phase Classification, or IPC, said on Tuesday that the “worst-case scenario of famine” was already unfolding in the Palestinian enclave under Israel’s deadly military offensive. It noted that its warning was an alert and not a formal “famine classification.”
Netanyahu has denied there is starvation in Gaza, despite the IPC’s report and rising deaths from starvation reported by local health officials and aid groups.
Israel launched its offensive in Gaza following the Hamas-led Oct. 7, 2023, attacks in which some 1,200 people were killed and around 250 taken hostage, marking a major escalation in a decadeslong conflict.
Since then, more than 60,800 people have been killed in Gaza, including thousands of children, while thousands more have been injured, according to the local health ministry, and much of the enclave has been reduced to rubble.
Israel continues to face allegations of genocide in its assault in Gaza in a case brought before the International Court of Justice, while a growing number of experts and advocates have also accused the country of genocidal acts, a charge both Israel and the U.S. have rejected.
